The Navy officially named three future ships this past week, as well as the official name for its new class of ocean surveillance ships. The vessels honor two Navy veterans and underwater explorers, as well as a Marine killed in action during the Iraq War.
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced the names at different events on Friday. The amphibious transport dock ship LPD 33 will be named for Travis Manion, Del Toro announced at the U.S. Naval Academy. Manion, an academy graduate, served in the Marine Corps with 1st Reconnaissance Battalion and fought in Iraq. In April 2007 his unit was in the Anbar Province when it came under attack. Manion exposed himself to sniper fire to distract the enemies from his wounded comrades. He was killed while attacking the ambushers. Manion was awarded the Silver Star and the Bronze Star with Valor posthumously.
“The San Antonio-class amphibious ship represents the combined power of the Navy and Marine Corps team and relies on the seamless integration of Sailors and Marines working together,” Del Toro said. “Here, at his alma mater, I am proud to announce that the next San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, LPD 33, will be named USS Travis Manion, serving as a symbol of courage, bravery, and selfless service for all who follow in her wake.”
The San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship serves as a kind of mothership for expeditionary forces, capable of carrying troops and landing craft and amphibious vehicles. They can both augment forces as a floating platform for aerial units or ferry assault forces to coastal areas.
The USS Travis Manion is the first ship named for the late Marine.
The future USS Travis Manion is one of several ships Secretary Del Toro announced the names of last week. Del Toro also named the first two vessels from the Navy’s new ocean surveillance ships, and their class name. The new ships — meant for submarine detection and underwater surveillance out at sea — were previously known as “T-AGOS” but are now formally called the Explorer class. And the first two ships will be called the USNS Don Walsh and USNS Victor Vescovo, after the two naval explorers.
“These ships are essential to maintaining strategic deterrence and operational awareness in the world’s oceans,” Del Toro said.
Don Walsh spent more than two decades in the Navy, mainly in submarines. A trained diver, he took part in the Navy’s deep sea dives to the Marianas Trench. In 1960 he and scientist Jacques Piccard took a vessel down to Challenger-Deep, the deepest known part of the ocean. He retired as a captain and passed away in 2023. Vescovo, a retired Navy commander, has led expeditions to several deep parts of the ocean and located shipwrecks. In 2022 he located the wreck of the USS Samuel B. Roberts, a destroyer sunk in 1944 in World War II during the Battle off Samar.
The military has so far ordered seven Explorer-class ships.
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